L’Abbaye. 2019. J.Harms. Acrylic on paper. 48x63cm.
Early this year, my sister and I went to visit Royaumont Abbey. As is my habit in my work, I am constantly on the look out for a certain bouquet of lines in all things or places I see or go through. At Royaumont, what I thought was striking were the very tall trees bordering each side of the path leading to the Abbey. I especially liked their reflection in the water too, and the peaceful atmosphere.
I’m happy to announce that I will be exhibiting again at the Grand Salon D’Art Abordable in Paris in the beginning of November. This is the French twist to the affordable Art Fairs of the world. I will be showing some of my new works.
Bull in the yard. 2018. J.Harms. Acrylic on canvas. 50×65 cm. (Private collection.)
A small satire of the U.S of A.
Attention aux cactus. 2018. J.Harms. 81×100 cm. Acrylic on canvas.
I was contacted a couple weeks ago by an artist whom I exhibited with last year. She is currently organizing a show in a Parisian gallery and has kindly asked me to participate. The theme for the show is “tropical dream” . Having never been to the Islands, And having absolutely no paintings resembling the theme, I decided to roam the Jardin d’Auteuil in Paris. Those of you that watch the tennis will know that Roland Garros’ courts are right across the street from those extraordinary greenhouses. The main one, resembling a little crystal palace, was closed for maintenance. It held the palm trees which I intended to paint at first. Walking around the gardens to the other smaller greenhouses, I came across the one housing the cacti. Beware of the cacti.
Road to knowledge. 2018. J.Harms. Acrylic on paper. 48×63 cm. (Private collection.)
On the first floor of the Logan Museum of Anthropology at Beloit Wisconsin’s college, there is a big window …
L’arbre d’or. The 6th Continent 12/365.2018. J.Harms. Acrylic on paper. 10x15cm.
Row row the boat gently down the milky lake, our wandered settles on a crumb of an island to rest for the night under the golden tree. There he remains till dawn.
Au palais d’Iéna. 2018. J.Harms. Acrylic on paper. 40x50cm. (Private collection.)
At the end of March this year, AD magazine hosted a show ( AD matières ) on contemporary interior decorating at the Palais d’Iéna in Paris. It focused mainly on decorative painting, and other wall finishes ( mosaïc, straw, unique wall-papers…). I was curious to see the new trends, and visited the site with some expectation. Since the decorative world is rather small, I quickly realised that almost everyone presented works of a similar palette of colors, warm golden hues, sometimes just plain gold leaf or paint, brushed over, or combed, or mixed with a darker color, so much so, that I painted the place with warm earth tones, simply because that’s how I remember it.
The show in itself was not very inspiring. However, the location was. The place has a bahausian flair to it. Coincidentally, I am half-way through Nicholas Fox Weber’s book “the Bahaus group”. I wonder if that had some influence on the choice of the subject and the way with which I painted it.
